Is Hacked Website or Email Cleanup Included in My Plan?

TL;DR

• Hacked website: yes, on our WordPress Support Services plans. Malware removal is included, and we repair and restore your site within 24 hours of being notified.
• Hacked email: it isn’t part of a website build or our WordPress Support Services plans. Email cleanup can come out of your Webmaster Retainer hours, or it’s billed hourly.
• Not on a plan yet? When a site joins our support plans, setup includes a malware scan, and any malware we find gets cleaned up.
• Suspect a hack? Contact us right away. If your site is down, call or text.

What’s Included When Your Website Is Hacked

Our WordPress Support Services plans include malware repair at no extra cost. Malware is harmful code a hacker plants on your site, often to send spam or send your visitors somewhere else.

We repair and restore your site within 24 hours of being notified, whether the alert comes from our security monitoring or from you. The cleanup covers:

1. Scan the site to find the malware.
2. Find the way in. It’s often an outdated plugin. See How Often Should I Update WordPress and My Plugins?
3. Remove the malware and close the door it came through.
4. Reset passwords and security keys. Security keys (sometimes called salt keys) are codes that keep logins secure. Changing them logs everyone out.
5. Check for weak spots. Outdated or vulnerable themes and plugins.
6. Send you a list of any plugins that need to be replaced.
7. Watch closely afterward to make sure it stays clean.

On one client’s site, an alert came in during the afternoon. By the next morning, we had found the doorway they came through, closed it, and repaired and restored the site. The doorway was a plugin.

For everything else the plan covers, see What’s Included in a WordPress Support Plan or Webmaster Retainer?

What’s not included: replacing deprecated plugins (ones their developers no longer support) and premium plugin costs. No one can promise a site will never be hacked.

What About Hacked Email?

Email cleanup isn’t part of a website build or our WordPress Support Services plans. If you’re on our Webmaster Retainer, it can come out of your retainer hours. Otherwise, it’s billed hourly, and you can set a cap on the hours.

First, we rule out your website. Sometimes the problem is the email account itself. Then Webmaster For Hire recommends locking the account down:

1. Change the password. Use one you’ve never used anywhere else.
2. Turn on two-factor authentication. A second step at login, like a code sent to your phone.
3. Check your email rules and forwarding. Rules are automatic instructions. Hackers add them to forward or delete your mail without you noticing.
4. Check connected apps. Remove anything you don’t recognize.
5. Scan every computer that uses the account.
6. Send new passwords by text instead of email.

Is It a Virus or Spoofing?

A lot of “email virus” reports turn out to be spoofing (someone sending email that pretends to come from your address). With spoofing, nobody has to get into your account. They just borrow your name.

A DMARC record helps stop spoofing. DMARC is an email security setting in your domain’s DNS (the settings that tell the internet where your email and website live). It tells other email providers what to do with messages that fail the checks proving they came from you, including rejecting them. To check, we need the full header of a suspicious email (the hidden details about where it really came from) and access to your email host.

:: Common Questions ::

Why Is Google Still Showing a Red Warning After the Cleanup?

Google can keep its warning up after the malware is gone. Someone has to ask Google to review the site in Search Console, Google’s free tool for site owners. Google says malware reviews take a few days, and sites hacked with spam can take up to several weeks. Once Google finds the site clean, the warning comes down within 72 hours (Google: Request a review).

Is My Website Safe If My Email Was Hacked?

They can be separate problems. We check the website first. If it’s clean, we focus on the email account.

How Do I Know If an Alert or Email Is Real?

Send it to us. It takes us about five seconds to tell you if it’s real, and it’s free for our clients.

Want Your Website Covered Before Something Happens?

See what’s included in our WordPress Support Services plans, or request a consultation if you think your site or email has been hacked.